(20 Mar 2024, 7:44 am)RobinHood wrote Or maybe the Unite officer leading the negs with Arriva is pushing them out the door, exactly the same as he did with GNE, same person, same agenda. This is politics, and Arriva are the next pawn.

There is a mix of new and inexperienced Arriva internal Unite reps, being led by Mark Sanderson at Unite. He is not willing to negotiate, simply demanding a number and balloting immediately for IA when the business didn't offer it on day one.

Drivers are happy to go out, as Unite will continue to pay them, so very little to lose in hope of a better offer.

I know there will be variable opinions on this, many in favour, but Unite did this with GNE, demanding pay parity with NW, but not terms. A negotiation isn't a negotiation with Unite, and what did they end up with after it all?

The starting pay at Arriva Northumbria, especially that for license holders (£11.19), is massively below what both GNE (£14.27) and Stagecoach (£14.30) are offering. That's not on the union, that's on incompetent management and not understanding the labour market they're hiring in. 

You then have few experienced drivers joining, the new recruits you do have leaving quickly, and the rest of the drivers becoming increasingly annoyed at the abuse they're receiving because management aren't doing their jobs properly - so they leave too.

I don't think the behaviour of the Union has been great, but Arriva management and the decisions they've made for a few years has caused morale to constantly drop and abuse from passengers to constantly rise. I don't blame the drivers for wanting a break from that one bit, especially when the company is making no attempt to fix the underlying issues.